Percy Jackson: The Firstborn

Chapter 125: Chapter 125: Damon the one and only

PLACE>

When he reappeared beside Amaterasu after leaving Kaguya and Izanami behind, the first thing Damon noticed was nature, followed by a temple. Right in front of them was a long stone staircase decorated with a Japanese-style arch. At the top of the arch, a kanji was engraved, one Damon immediately recognized as the kanji for Order. The redhead raised an eyebrow and glanced sideways at Amaterasu. The goddess simply gave him a slightly nervous smile, making it clear that she had wanted to show him this for a long time. Without saying anything, she linked her arm with his a little tighter.

”Where are we?” Damon asked, noticing how a thin mist surrounded them and altered their appearance in the eyes of mortals. Before Amaterasu could answer, the sound of footsteps descending the stairs caught his attention. A family was calmly walking down. A man, a woman, and a small child dressed in a yukata. The child jumped from step to step with his excitement at its peak. ”Ka-chan, can we come again?” he asked, looking at his mother with bright eyes as he descended the last steps. ”The statues are huge!”

Damon could not help but smile at the child’s energy. When the family passed near them, the child’s eyes met Damon’s. The redhead inclined his head slightly, more out of instinct than anything else, and the child returned the gesture with such exaggerated seriousness that Damon had to hold back a laugh. It was then that Damon noticed the symbol embroidered on the back of the father’s yukata. The emblem of the Senju clan instantly surprised the redhead. Of all things, he did not expect to see that symbol again.

”What the hell,” Damon said quietly, leaning slightly toward Amaterasu.

The sun goddess did not answer. She simply began climbing the stairs, dragging him along with her before he could protest. Damon let himself be guided, though the lack of answers was starting to annoy him a little. Amaterasu knew perfectly well that secrecy had never been something the redhead liked very much.

As they climbed, they crossed paths with more people coming down. Elders, priests, a few retired shinobi by the way they walked, and ordinary civilians. Some had symbols of known clans embroidered on their clothes. Senju, Nara, Yamanaka, Hyuga... each emblem brought back memories of ancient times for the redhead. ”Ahh, how nostalgic,” the redhead whispered softly.

When they reached the final step, Damon understood why Amaterasu had not said anything. What he was seeing right now certainly could not be explained with simple words. In front of them stretched an enormous clearing surrounded by trees, flowers, and stone paths. At the center of the place stood a gigantic Japanese temple, white, blue, and gold, with elegant roofs and symbols that blended Shinto architecture with marks from the Elemental Nations. But the temple was not what left Damon speechless. It was the statues.

Nine enormous figures surrounded the temple, clearly made to be its guardians. Damon recognized the bijuu instantly. Shukaku, Matatabi, Isobu, Son Goku, Kokuo, Saiken, Chomei, Gyuki, and Kurama. Each one was carefully carved, and their bodies were inclined toward the center of the clearing in a perfect display of respect.

For a moment, Damon felt movement inside himself. ”If someone had told me humans would someday build a statue of me, I would have laughed in their face,” Kurama said, observing through Damon’s eyes.

Matatabi was quick to reply. ”And then you would have threatened them.” Kurama growled without any real annoyance. ”Probably.”

Son Goku, for his part, seemed satisfied. ”My statue has a good size.”

On the other hand, Shukaku did not take even three seconds to explode. ”Why do I feel like mine is the smallest?!” Kurama let out a dry laugh, clearly enjoying the tanuki’s misery. ”It’s obvious even the sculptor understood your place in the hierarchy.” The fox showed off a toothy grin before bursting into laughter. Shukaku froze in shock for a second before exploding with an indignant growl, his face turning red with rage. ”You damn mangy fox!”

Damon let out a low laugh as he heard Kurama mocking the tanuki. Shukaku immediately started shouting, Kurama kept laughing, and the other bijuu did not take long to join in only to make things worse. Damon let the chaos continue for a few more seconds before setting the argument aside for a moment, something closer to the center catching the redhead’s attention.

Two enormous wolves. One white and one black. One howled toward the sky, while the other remained seated. Damon recognized them instantly. Kaia and Orien.

Then he saw the main statue. ”Seriously...” the redhead murmured, surprised.

It was him. It was literally his original body displayed in all its splendor as a gigantic figure of a man with long reddish hair, dressed in divine robes that mixed Greek, shinobi, and Shinto details. On his chest was marked the symbol of the scales, with a white wolf and a black wolf on each side. One hand rested on the hilt of a sheathed sword, while the other was extended toward the temple. The statue was truly imposing.

At the feet of that statue was another figure that Damon instantly recognized as Naruto Uzumaki. He was kneeling, with one hand on his chest and the other extended toward the people. On his back, he carried the symbol of the shinobi union. In front of him were fresh flowers, red ribbons tied around small wooden tablets, and a stone plaque engraved with words: Naruto Uzumaki, first messenger of Order. Damon read the inscription once, then a second time, and finally let out a short laugh as he ran a hand over his face.

”First messenger of Order? This has to be a joke,” he asked, unable to keep the amusement out of his voice.

Amaterasu gently squeezed his hand, though her smile made it clear she had been waiting for exactly that reaction from the start. ”Welcome to the Temple of Damon,” she said softly, watching his face closely. ”God of Order.”

Damon laughed again, this time out loud, though the mist perfectly hid his reaction from the eyes and ears of the mortals. The redhead could not help but look at how some prayed before his statue while others left small plaques with the names of families, clans, or villages. Near Naruto’s statue, an old man bowed his head, touched the stone at its feet, and left a tablet marked with the symbol of the shinobi union. Beside him, a little girl placed a flower on the base before running back to her mother. Damon watched it all with a mixture of disbelief and amusement, but at the same time, he now understood where the prayers he had heard since arriving had come from.

”This is madness,” Damon murmured, though the smile remained on his face.

”Sometimes madness is good,” Amaterasu replied with a satisfied smile.

Damon shot her a sideways look, but the goddess did not seem the least bit repentant. Then he noticed the carved murals on the outer walls of the temple. Each one showed a different part of his life as Naruto, but his symbol was at the center of all of them. The scales appeared behind his battles, over his alliances, and at the end of every path carved into stone. Damon followed one of the murals with his gaze until he read the inscription engraved at the base.

Naruto Uzumaki... The man who carried the will of Order to the Elemental Nations. First messenger of Damon. The highly one.

The redhead slowly turned toward Amaterasu, looking at her with blank eyes. ”Ama, I need you to explain how we went from Naruto Uzumaki to having religious murals where it basically looks like I am literally the biblical God.”

Amaterasu raised her head and puffed out her chest with pride, clearly satisfied with herself. ”We thought it made no sense to erase Naruto Uzumaki. He was the greatest hero of the Elemental Nations. People love him, respect him, and will remember him forever. But it also made no sense to let them worship only a mask when it is truly you.”

”So you literally copied the Bible,” Damon said, trying to keep a serious expression and failing almost immediately.

”With a little divine influence,” Amaterasu admitted without shame. ”Nothing too aggressive. Just enough for time to do the rest. Naruto Uzumaki remained as the man who carried your will. The messenger. The proof that even someone born among humans could change the world through faith.”

Damon let out another laugh, shaking his head. ”I definitely did not see this coming. So basically, I am a religion now.”

Amaterasu lifted one finger elegantly. ”We only inspired an interpretation and made a few small changes to improve it.” The goddess continued, pointing toward the statues of the bijuu. ”We also thought it would be good to leave the bijuu as the first guardians. The nine pillars that protected order.”

Inside Damon, the bijuu puffed out their chests almost at the same time. ”Pillar sounds good,” Son Goku admitted, clearly pleased. ”Guardians of Order sounds better,” Matatabi said.

Kurama let out a low growl, though the pride in his voice was impossible to hide. ”Tsk. I would never bow to anyone.”

Shukaku let out an indignant sound at once. ”Speak for yourself, fox! I always knew I deserved a statue,” the tanuki said, far too proud of the situation. In the end, whether they were called pillars, guardians, or apostles, one thing was clear: their names would be remembered forever in the Elemental Nations.

Damon ran a hand through his hair and let out a long sigh. At the same time, he looked at the statues again, his expression becoming a little more thoughtful. As absurd as the idea sounded, it made sense.

If the temple had been dedicated only to Naruto, sooner or later the faith would have remained tied to a life that had already ended. If they had erased Naruto to place only Damon there, it would have been disrespectful to everything that life had meant to the Elemental Nations. But this united both things. Naruto continued to be remembered as the hero who opened the path, while Damon was recognized as the truth behind the order that world had inherited.

The result was strange, but brilliant. Order did not depend only on the name Naruto Uzumaki or on a legend that could deform over the centuries. It gave the Elemental Nations a concrete divine figure, and a reason to maintain peace even when the memories of the old hero began to turn into myth. Damon had to applaud the Shinto gods for the brilliant idea.

Seeing the different expressions pass across her man’s face, Amaterasu watched him carefully before asking in a soft voice, ”Do you like it?”

Damon looked at the people walking through the temple with offerings in their hands. ”Yes,” he said at last, with a firm voice and a grateful smile. ”I like it.”

Amaterasu smiled in satisfaction, but Damon narrowed his eyes as he looked at Naruto’s statue. ”Though I have a question.” Amaterasu tilted her head slightly. ”What is it?”

Damon pointed at the smile carved into the statue’s face. ”Did I really smile like that?”

Amaterasu covered her mouth with the sleeve of her yukata, letting out a small laugh. ”Completely,” the goddess replied, the mockery clear in her eyes. Damon could only let out a sigh.

”How horrifying!”

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LOL sht actually worked out in the end lol Naruto will be remembered as Moses 😂😂

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P@treon: Brotato